The University’s website, jhu.edu, won a 2016 Webby Award in the School/University Category on Tuesday. Within this category, the website was awarded the People’s Choice Award for having received the most online votes.
The website, which was redesigned last year by the Office of Communications, features rotating live photos on the front page as well as infographics to facilitate communication.
Established in 1996, the Webby Awards honor international excellence on the Internet. According to The New York Times, the awards are the “Internet’s highest honor.” The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences (IADAS) selects nominees for five major media types: websites, advertising and media, online film and video, mobile sites and apps and social.
Within these five major categories, there are a number of subcategories for which the IADAS selects a winner. Online voters then select a separate winner for the People’s Choice Award.
This year the Webby Awards received nearly 13,000 submissions from around the world. Within the School/University Category, the University’s website competed against Harvard Business School, the University of Southern California Iovine and Young Academy, New York University Tisch School of the Arts and the University of North Carolina School of the Arts.
David Alexander, the leader of the website design project and editor of the Hub, expressed his excitement about the University’s website winning the award. He noted how much work his team put into revamping the site.
“We couldn’t be more thrilled. This project involved a lot of hard work by a lot of people, and we’re all so proud of the final product,” Alexander said. “To have our efforts recognized in this way, alongside some of the best work from across the web — it’s extremely gratifying.”
Glenn Bieler, vice president of communications and supervisor of the project, explained how the website was created without any assistance from outside design or development firms, making the accomplishment even more significant for him.
“When we launched the site, we knew that we were raising the bar for research university websites,” Bieler said. “The fact that the entire site was designed and developed in-house makes this recognition even more meaningful. We have a very talented, dedicated group of people working on our team.”
The University will be formally recognized for its achievements at the 20th Webby Awards Ceremony that will take place on May 17.
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